APA Citation Manual

APA Style Examples

What is Plagiarism and Why is it Important?

In college courses, we are constantly exposed to other people’s ideas: we read them in texts, hear them in lecture, discuss them in class, and incorporate them into our own writing. As a result, it is extremely important that we give credit where it is due. Plagiarism is using others’ ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.

How Can Students Avoid Plagiarism?

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use:

Another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;

Any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that are not common knowledge;

Quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words;

Paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words.

When in doubt, CITE!

To avoid plagiarism at ResU, you must use the 6th edition of the APA (American Psychological Association) citation manual and know exactly how to cite information. Improperly formatting your paper will cause you to lose points, so pay attention!

READ YOUR PAPER OUT LOUD!

Try working from a printed copy. This will allow you to make marks at places where something sounds wrong to you so you can return to them later.

As you read, follow along with your finger, pointing at each word. This can help you stay focused and not skip anything.

If you are proofreading, consider reading your paper out loud one sentence at a time, starting at the end and working back to the beginning. This will help you focus on the structure of each sentence, rather than on the overall flow of your argument.

Try covering up everything but the section or sentence you are working on at the moment so you can concentrate on it and not get lost.